Last time I traveled to Houston for work, I said I was too tired to go out drinking with my boss and our clients. They ended up getting drunk and having wacky drunk-driving adventures.

So glad I missed that.

How much can I bust out and enjoy downtown Chicago that way?

Another editor and I went to Kingston Mines and got soused and listened to music till 3 a.m. that trip. But publishing is sort of loose, at least the publisher I worked for. My boss was one of my best friends, and the big boss wasn't around except for the one big company dinner we threw for authors. (Where everyone got drunk anyway.)

But the serious relationship hasn't happened yet and I still haven't been to Europe....

You should just go. Even when you get a serious girlfriend, she may not be a good travel companion. I know many people who I enjoy spending time with and love dearly, but with whom I would not travel.

I'm still recovering from my MI job. Way too many lines blurred there. But we went on vacation together there, twice. All of us. I could never do that now. Lounging in the pool and drinking with my co-workers? Not in ten million years.

My boss has made more noises about hiring me permanently. Please make this work out, work deities.

WTF headline of the century: Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo

Heh. The "Skywalkers" are tightrope walkers. "Han" is the Han river.

You should just go.

Yeah, I'm coming around to that point of view....

Yeah, that's rough. When I was at the law school, I would sometimes work with a recruiting partner. Luckily, she lived in Maryland and I lived in Virginia, so we flew out of different airports, so I didn't have to deal with the traveling together issue. However, sometimes when we got to our destination, she would suggest dinner, and I would say "oh, sorry, i'm meeting some friends (usually Buffistas). See you in the morning!" I think that she was bothered by it, but I would eat breakfast and lunch with her, so I thought it was a decent trade off.

My kids were teens or pre-teens when I had the occasional work travel. Goodness, a bathroom to myself for as long as I wanted to soak, and nobody to argue with over the tv remote? Light on to read until I was sleepy? Send me away more, work, please!

I've shared a hotel room with an opposite-sex coworker (well, fellow graduate student) on a layover in Zurich on the way back from a project. But archaeological field work does tend to lead to levels of intimacy above and beyond the usual work-related togetherness (and this particular coworker was a good friend, and the person planning our travel asked if it would be okay before booking it.)

My father, naturally, travelled for work all the time. He was incredibly ho-hum about it. I never, even when I travelled nowhere near as interesting, found it blasé. It was nice not to be paying for my own shit, but I could park conveniently, and I wasn't packing for a long trip, so that was simple...

My sister now travels for work manically. She's on an alert list for faraway conferences so she can go cool places. Next destination? Thailand. Plane ticket subsidised, she just extends the stay. Pfft.